1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for use with a train for reducing the severity of impact between the train and a land vehicle or pedestrian.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Collisions between trains and road vehicles such as cars or trucks and between trains and pedestrians kill hundreds and injure thousands of people in the United States each year. In order to reduce these casualties, many prevention methods have been deployed. Such methods include warning signage, median barriers, active barrier crossing, grade separation, illegal crossing monitoring and ticketing, public awareness campaigns, as well as other methods. While these prevention methods appear to have an effect in reducing the number of train and land vehicle/pedestrian collisions and the resulting deaths and injuries, such collisions still occur. Many car and truck drivers and pedestrians ignore the barriers or attempt to "beat" the train, while some pedestrians continue to walk along the tracks and may never hear the train that hits them. A train that is moving at 45 miles per hour has little chance of avoiding an object that is 250 yards away. Furthermore, a collision with a larger object such as a car or a truck may result in the train derailing, thereby causing collateral deaths and injuries to passengers on the train and to people in the area surrounding the point of derailment caused either by impact with the train itself or as a result of the train releasing a hazardous cargo such as toxic fumes or flammable substances that ignite.
In order to further reduce the deaths and injuries that result from train and land vehicle/pedestrian collisions, it must be assumed that such collisions will still occur regardless of the prevention methods that are undertaken. Accordingly, the severity of the actual collision must be reduced in order to reduce the deaths and injuries from the collisions.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a train collision system that reduces the resulting deaths and injuries from a train and land vehicle and/or pedestrian collision. Such a system must absorb the energy that results from the collision without a substantial portion of that energy being imparted on the object which the train strikes. The train collision system must reduce the likelihood that a train will derail when it strikes an object in its right of way. Ideally, the system must be utilizable with current trains without requiring that the trains by modified in any fashion.